By Lucinda Elliott MONTEVIDEO (Reuters) -Voters in South America's laid-back Uruguay, known for its beaches, legalized marijuana and stability, headed to the polls on Sunday for a second-round presidential race between moderates that closes out a bumper year for global elections.

The staid election has turned into a hard-fought race between Álvaro Delgado, the incumbent party's candidate, and Yamandú Orsi from the Broad Front, a coalition of leftist and center-left parties tha

Uruguay is on the cusp of becoming the latest country to oust an incumbent party this year, with violent crime and an economic recovery that has left many behind bolstering the hopes of the leftist opposition candidate in Sunday’s presidential election.

People in the small nation of 3.4 million have to choose between the leftist Frente Amplio (Broad Front) candidate Yamandu Orsi and Alvaro Delgado of the National Party, a member of outgoing President Luis Lacalle Pou’s centre-right Republican Coalition.

Uruguayans will be choosing between two centrist candidates for their next president on Sunday, but the closely fought run-off could be decided by voters who went for an anti-vax radical and other fringe candidates in the first round.

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Uruguayan Alvaro Delgado, a 55-year-old former senator and the conservative ruling coalition's continuity candidate for president, is counting on support from an eliminated ally to triumph against the center-left frontrunner in Sunday's run-off election.